Multiplication for a 4 year old? Help please!

We had parents evening last night. Apparently DS (4) is surpassing the class in all areas, they could plonk him in year one now and he would be more than able to keep up I feel embarrassed typing that!

The teacher says she wants to start doing simple multiplication with him as he picks up maths very easily and is a bit bored of number bonds to 5!

Does she mean times tables? Maths is not my strong point!

Also, I don't want to hothouse him. He enjoys learning and tends to bounce off the walls if not engaged in something.

Every time I read threads like this I breathe a sigh of relief that my DD is at a 3form entry state school where there is a broad spread of ability. My DD is extremely "advanced" versus usual NC levels but her school take it all in their stride and are happy to differentiate learning appropriately. Unless i felt my child was at some genius level, I would find it very worrying if a school said she was "surpassing the class in all areas".

Just realised dd did number bonds to 10 in reception. Dd is "bright" - teacher's words but I was under the impression the whole class were doing this work. But that would be a straight forward extension to your ds's work. Dd is currently in year one and her level is 2b so year 2 level. Her school automatically stretch her - the school should be leading this.

He's bright. I don't think he's a genius but whether that's because he's not had access to quantum physics and what not I don't know!

His teacher said he picks things up at an alarming speed. She only has to show him a word and he knows it and that his capacity for maths is amazing.

I was just quite impressed I hadn't been imaging things. It's an academy so they're a bit pushy anyway I suppose however he does focus better if it's new. He will learn something once then as he's done it he won't want to go back to it.

I'll just see what they're doing at school and support him at home if he wants to do it there too. If not then he'll pick it up through play anyway I'm sure!

Working a year or two ahead of peers is well within the range of "normal", so the school should be able to cater for his needs quite easily. I don't think you need to do anything special with him at home - just encourage him to follow his own interests!

Its really good to know your child has found what they are good at and it can come as a shock. I'm not an authority but friends with very bright dc just tend to encourage at home with lots of games and puzzles. I guess it satisfies the need to be challenged.

I had him fairly young so hearing someone not related to him say he was clever made up for all the toddler groups I was blanked at and all the dirty looks I get at the school gates IYSWIM! Apologies to anyone that was pissed off by my post. I don't have anyone in RL to ask about school stuff.

We follow his lead at home. I've always gone with if he's interested then we will look at something. He's in a Greek mythology stage at the moment (saw the medusa statue at natural history museum!) so I'm currently having to adapt the stories to a child friendly level!

I'll leave the multiplication for now and just see what he comes out with.

The Starfall website has some numbers games. It's been a while since we used it so I can't remember if there are any multiplication ones but it might be worth a look. I think the Sesame Street website has some too. Well done on his great report.

We just do simple "problems" at home. She has a sister so we asked if they both had 4 apples - how many would y have alltogether. Now I can ask her what "2 lots of 4" are etc. Only one question and randomly though.

If they're bright there really really isn't a need to push them at 4/5. I want her to enjoy being small and am trying to restrain the urge to to do "work" with her and instead let her pick bits up at school. At home she plays with dolls/ goes to the park. Many kids wouldn't even start school until 7!

DS3 has started learning about multiplication. He started very simply e.g. Each coat has 5 buttons on, there are 4 coats (picture of each coat) how many buttons are there altogether = 5+5+5+5 = 20 Or Each bunch of bananas has 3 bananas, there are 3 bunches, how many bananas 3+3+3=9. He is naturally good at maths, and moved from that very quickly to doing things like 5*4, 3*3 etc, much more so than his older brother who still doesn't quite 'get it'.

We play a game in the car where we say, for example '3 cats, how many paws?' and DD works out the answer then sets us a question in return... Just recently she's been starting to go the other way too (division) '16 ears, how many pigs?'

At the 3 primary schools I have had children at they have counted in 2s,5s,10s forwards and backwards, number bonds to 20 , ordered numbers to 100 on one ofthose hook boards in reception.I think the teacher needs to have higher expectations of her class!Are you in a very deprived area?